Add Querystring Parameters using a Bookmarklet; Force Wikipedia's Old Look and Feel

The Problem

Recently, Wikipedia changed its look and feel which seems slightly off, at least on some screens.

For me, on a desktop, I find a lot of empty space wasted on both the left and right sides of the main body which makes the lines in the main body short in length and results in more scrolling.

On the bright side, the TOC menu is sticky now - we can always see it irrespective of our scroll location on the page.

Well, if you are an immersive reader like me, you may want more content visible at a given time on screen and as less the need for scrolling as possible.

If this is true, the following solution that I've devised for myself may be useful for you.

The cool thing about this solution is that:

• You do not need a Wikipedia account.
• There is no extension used, and hence, no potential leak of privacy.

This solution works by adding query parameter(s) to the current URL and reloading the page, and can generally be used on any webpage as may the need be.

In the screenshots given below for the old and new styles (respectively), you can see how much space seems to be wasted.

Options Available

Before looking at the solution I use and recommend, let's look at other options first so as to be able to compare and make an informed decision.

One option is to create and use a Wikipedia account and set preferences there.

I do not like this solution because I find myself using Wikipedia in incognito mode many a time, and I generally do not log in to websites in incognito mode.

There is another way - Wikipedia allows the use of a query parameter called useskin which can be used to force a different old look and feel.

For forcing the old look and feel that they have recently moved away from, it is to be used as useskin=vector.

This is good, but only theoretically.

Practically, you are never going to add this parameter manually every time you use Wikipedia.

Well, one solution is to use an extension like QueryParam.

I, being a privacy freak, try to avoid browser extensions as much as possible.

This one (QueryParam), e.g. asks permission for reading browser history, and though I can see it's only for using the tabs api, what if, this changes tomorrow with an update when I'm simply oblivious about it!

Further, even if I use extensions, I do not enable them for incognito mode, which as I said earlier, I frequently use for browsing Wikipedia.

Lastly, the solution that I'm going to use - using a bookmarklet - needs only one button click which is the best thing one can have ergonomically.

The Solution

Use the code given in the next section to create a bookmarklet.

If you don't know how to create a bookmarklet, it's just like another bookmark, but for the URL field (in the bookmark edit panel), we have JavaScript code.

Then, on clicking on this bookmarklet, this code runs which, in our case (for the code given below) simply adds the query parameter useskin=vector (if it's not already there), and reloads the page.

Other query parameters and hash (if any) are preserved.

Bookmarklet Code

Simply paste the code given below in the URL field of a new bookmarklet in your browser.

You may change the value of useskin parameter (for forcing other styles) such as monobook, or create different bookmarklets for different styles.